Greased Leader With A Red Hot Twist

Lance Egan
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February 29, 2012

A Red Hot twist on the greased leader technique. Midges and Baetis are showing more and more with each warming day. Spring will be here before we know it. Tossing dries at rising fish is a real treat this time of year and it's a great time to knock the rust off your dry fly skills after the long winter.

If your rising fish are proving to be super selective and are doing their best to ignore even your techie CDC fly patterns try this technique to fool a few extra fish.

Take an Umpqua Red Hot leader and apply floatant to the butt and tapered section of the leader, leaving just the tippet without floatant on it. The Red Hot leader has a milky colored butt section and a hi-vis red mid section. The tippet is clear. Add a few feet of 5X or 6X fluorocarbon tippet and attach your favorite midge pupa or baetis emerger. With the top 2/3 of the leader "greased" it will float and suspend your fly keeping it high in the water column. The Red Hot leader makes it easy to see the leader and recognize the hesitation of a fish taking your fly.

When Trout are rising you can easily target specific fish, land your fly a few feet upstream of their feeding lie and watch the leader for a strike.

Try this out the next time you see some noses and can't crack the code. It works quite well.

Any fly shop carrying Umpqua products could order these for you if they don't already carry this leader.

Corporate

Fly Fisherman

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